"I cannot believe this!" Marguerite stomped into the room, "Sneaking around and unwrapping your gifts before your birthday like you're twelve instead of two hundred! What were you thinking?"
"Well, technically, it is her birthday, Aunt Marguerite," Thomas pointed out as he closed the door.
Lissianna tossed her cousin a grateful smile, but said, "I wasn't sneaking around. I came up to get fresh stockings." She scooped them up off the bed, and added, "And I didn't unwrap him."
Marguerite stared pointedly at the floor.
After glancing down to see the untied bow lying forgotten there, Lissianna grimaced, and admitted, "Okay, I did unwrap him, but only because he was upset, and I hated to leave him distressed." She paused, then tilted her head, and said, "I take it Bastien's arrival interrupted you before you could put the full whammy on him? He was upset about being kidnapped and wanted to be untied when I got here."
"I didn't kidnap him," Marguerite said with affront, then peered past Lissianna to Dr. Gregory Hewitt to say, "I didn't kidnap you. I borrowed you." She turned her attention back to Lissianna to add, "And I did put the full whammy on him."
"Really?" Her eyebrows rose in surprise, and Lissianna glanced from her mother to the man in the bed with confusion. "It doesn't appear to have taken."
Marguerite sighed, some of her tension leaving. "Yes, well he appears to have a strong mind."
Lissianna nodded. "I noticed. I couldn't get into his thoughts to calm him. Not at all. That's why I was feeding on him. I thought it might allow me to merge with his mind and soothe him," Lissianna explained.
"That seems to have worked well," Thomas commented with amusement. "Although I wouldn't say he was soothed exactly."
Lissianna followed his gaze to the man's groin, where an erection was pressing his dress pants upward. Even as she peered at it, the tent in his trousers slowly deflated.
"Not a cucumber then," Thomas commented lightly, and Lissianna had to bite her lip on a nervous giggle.
Clearing her throat, she murmured, "I'm sorry, Mother. I didn't mean to spoil the birthday dinner you had planned. And really, I didn't. I mean, it may not be a surprise anymore, but I didn't really have much, just a quick bite. A small nibble really. I could feed a lot more." Her hungry gaze slid to the man in the bed, her body tingling at the idea of feeding from him again.
"He isn't your birthday dinner."
Lissianna reluctantly gave up ogling her birthday gift and turned to her mother with confusion. "What?"
"He isn't your birthday dinner," she repeated. "I ordered Chinese for you. The delivery boy should be here soon."
"Oh." There was no hiding her disappointment. Lissianna liked Chinese, but it never stuck with her. An hour afterward, she'd be hungry again. However, Gregory Hewitt had been robust and yummy, he'd been a filling and satisfying full-bodied stew next to Dwayne's watered-down broth. He'd also been a pleasure in ways she hadn't expected. Tonight, Lissianna had felt a little of the excitement that her hosts usually felt and transmitted to her when she fed from them. The excitement she'd never really understood or experienced herself except in a secondhand, observing sort of way. This time she hadn't been able to remain detached and observant. In having to seduce him, she'd apparently seduced herself ... Or perhaps he'd done the seducing, she thought, recalling his lips drawing her finger into his mouth.
Not that it had taken much seducing. He was quite the most attractive man she'd ever met, and that was saying something. Lissianna had met a lot of men in her two hundred years, and many were much more attractive aesthetically, but they'd only ever left her cold. There was something about this one that appealed to her though... and he smelled good, too. And those few moments where there minds had merged...
Lissianna hadn't really tried to read or control his thoughts as intended, she'd been too busy enjoying the moment, but from the brief connection, she'd got an imprint of his mind. It was a mixture of confusion, desire, intelligence, and an honesty and character that appealed to her.
Aware of the silence that had fallen over the room, Lis-sianna glanced about. The man presently filling her thoughts was lying back on the bed, staring at her with silent fascination. Lissianna thought that was interesting. On the other hand, her mother and cousin were also staring at her with concentrated interest, and she couldn't help but think that couldn't be a good thing. She hadn't been guarding her thoughts, she realized with discomfort and had no doubt the pair had just intruded on her contemplations of the pleasure she'd experienced with Greg Hewitt.
"So," Lissianna said abruptly, eager to remove her mother's thoughts from those that had been floating through her own mind.
Thomas helped out by asking, "If he isn't her birthday dinner, what is he?"
"Excuse me? Birthday dinner?" Greg squawked. He was gaping at them all rather horrified. Apparently he hadn't cottoned on to the conversation going on around him at first. Now he had and was distressed all over again. She would have taken the time to soothe him, but her mother spoke, distracting her.
"'He is your birthday gift, but not dinner." When Lissianna stared at her blankly, she sighed and crossed the room to take her hand. "It was supposed to be a surprise presented at the party, but as you've already unwrapped your gift, I may as well explain. Dear, this is Dr. Gregory Hewitt. He's a psychologist who specializes in phobias, and I brought him here to cure you. Happy Birthday."
Dr. Gregory Hewitt was a psychologist, Lissianna thought slowly. She hadn't thought to ask what sort of doctor he was when she'd asked his name and he'd said Dr. Gregory Hewitt. Now she knew. He was a psychologist here to cure her phobia.
"Oh," she murmured at last, then glanced in surprise at
Greg as he echoed her "oh." in much the same disappointed tone. It made her curious. Her own disappointment was based on the fact that she'd rather nibble on him than deal with something as unpleasant as her phobia, but it appeared he was no more pleased with the idea than she.
Greg sighed inwardly. He supposed he shouldn't have been disappointed by the brunette's announcement. He should be glad he wasn't to be a sex slave or... dinner? He was still trying to sort that one out. Lissianna, as the brunette kept addressing the blonde, had thought him her birthday dinner. Him? Birthday dinner? The idea was enough to knock every last distracting lusty thought right out of his head. Birthday dinner? Were they cannibals?
Good Lord, she'd nipped at his neck after kissing him, but just a little nip, then she'd settled into sucking, no doubt giving him a huge hickey he'd spend a week trying to hide, or maybe more. Greg wasn't sure. He'd only ever had a hickey once before, and that was when he was a teenager. He couldn't recall how long it had taken to fade.
He also didn't recall getting it to be quite as enjoyable as this experience had been either, yet he'd have been happy to let the blonde suck on his neck all she wanted, or any other body part she took a liking to. Being birthday dinner, however, didn't sound quite as enjoyable. Dear God, leave it to him to climb into the trunk of a cannibal. He really would prefer the sex slave scenario. It definitely sounded more enjoyable.